The mind lives out-of-body, beyond the brain, so all kinds of activity can continue there, even while the body/brain is in a coma, and vital signs extinguished. Those with almost total lack of brain function or lucidity over a period of years, suffering from Alzheimer's, can come back to full consciousness later in life, or when approaching death. Our consciousness lies outside the body and brain, and the brain is the organ that conducts and transmits the spirit consciousness to the body. The brain of course enables all the body functions to take place, supervising the nervous system, sensation, taste, smell, sight, hearing and all physical activity, the immune system and all self-healing activities. But self-awareness lies outside the body, pre-exists the body, and outlives it as the immortal soul or spirit.

Reincarnation, or other lives lived by that entity, is a further dimension of life which requires separate discussion. With all the evidence we have about the afterlife, the ongoing continuity of existence, we can face life with more joy and security and good feeling, banishing the depressing pessimism of some philosophers who find life meaningless and lacking purpose. Our mind is not imprisoned in the brain, unable to escape at the time of death. but it lives in the orb or spark of light which while we are on earth is the location and home of our true conscious self. In meditation we can attune to that higher self, that is, raise our vibration and frequency. A grander 360 degree perspective of life is available to us there,

While not discarding our present goals, interests and possessions and relationships, we can see what is important: good qualities and standards of being, maintaining them rather than chasing after the ephemeral and changing fashions, fads and trends. That gives us confidence, too, with joy and contentment. This is not just feeling good, but knowing what is going on, since we are spiritually in gear, reaching a level of maturity in which we come to possess a practical wisdom, knowing right from wrong, appreciating beauty and shunning what is ugly.

Arthur Janov's Primal Scream therapy and Tom Verny's regression therapy only go back to the birth process, and not into other lives. Endorsing the current medical science theory of life, that at death of the body, there's nothing more. Just loss of mind and consciousness. Life starts with conception, and ends in the morgue.

Regression therapy and reincarnation theory suggests a longer existence, ongoing with a future to look forward to in other worlds and dimensions. We have past-life memories and influences, and there is a plethora of evidence of an afterlife. Tom Verny's perinatal studies only survey the influences of the mother and environment on the foetus, and nothing before, or beyond the physical circumstances.

However, Psychical research studies all the phenomena of life, and comes up with at least thirty aspects to life suggesting a spirit world, life after life, consciousness prior to life, and that material life itself, and the cosmos with all its galaxies and dark matter, a dark blue mass of energy, black holes and a time span over trillions of light years, all this is the product of our thought and the mind, individually and en masse. The scientific belief is that matter produces the brain, out of which comes mind and conscious awareness and thought. So we have two extreme opposing viewpoints. Matter, or mind, as the origin of things. So we are back at the beginning, wondering how it all started. Creation myths, or scientific theories. Dawkings and Sam Harris versus the theologians and philosophers.

The Australian broadcaster John Dingwell, speaking about the afterlife, after his own death, said it is best to leave behind our religious beliefs, when dead. They don't apply any more! Those with closed, dogmatic minds may continue for years within their closed circle of believers.

Others, with open minds, discover many planes of existence.

Plans and choices are always being made and followed by those envisaging a life on earth, and by their guides and helpers, but accidents happen to change the course of events, so we have to adapt as best we can. This is both in the spirit world and here. on earth. Judy 'X' was Barry's Eaton's mother in her previous life. She was also his soul mate, and it is unusual for a soul mate to be a mother. This is explained in Barry Eaton's book 'Afterlife,' which reviews every type of phenomena occurring within the growth of Spiritualism over the past 160 years.

Electrons, Quarks, photons, atoms and so on, Particle Physics and Genetics and recent discoveries about the human genome and its DNA code tell us nothing about the nature of consciousness, beyond our finding that e es (Electron-magnetic units) have consciousness.

The mystery of human consciousness is as yet to be fully investigated. Psychical research, trans-personal psychology and meditation are three useful areas of study.

Harvard surgeon Dr. Eben Alexander after his personal experience of Heaven during a week-long coma concludes that consciousness does not reside in the brain, but outside this reality in the spirit world, and from there comes the basis of all that we find displayed in the material, phenomenal world. This viewpoint has earlier been presented by Dr. Thomas Hora, the New York psychiatrist and the founder of Metapsychiatry. He leaves two essential questions to be answered: 'What is the Meaning of What Seems to b?' and 'What Really IS?'

Consciousness creates not only the physical world but also our state of health and well-being, or lack of it, and all the everyday events around us. We attract them by our thought and emotion, our focus and concentration, or lack thereof. Will-power and determination are other factors.

When we die it will be like falling asleep and dreaming, but it will not be a dream, but waking up really alive, leaving the dead body inert and no longer functional. Cryogenics provides only a false hope of revival. We do not need to resuscitate it, since our mind and spirit are very much alive, functioning on eternally.

The afterlife experiences we read about support the idea of eternal life for all. NDEs, beautiful landscapes beyond, messages from friends and relatives, with their messages of joy and happiness in most cases, or their concerns over some of our problems. These messages do prove their continued existence, and their care and concern about us.

So we can approach death confidently. The idea of aging and death should not bring up images of suffering morgues, cremations and funeral processions, graveyards and cemeteries. Rather we should think of glimpses of heaven, and great expectations. The bodies left on battlefields display waste and destruction, and the foolishness of going to war. Natural disasters and loss of life also invoke loss and despair, but life on earth is chosen, and always implies risks to take, and being open to and ready for such type of event, man-made or natural. We survive as long as we have our work to do. Old age and death are just ways of leaving the world, when we have finished. Death may be speedy, or delayed. That probably was also a choice.

If we are uncertain about the continuation of life after death, we have only to look at the vast literature on the subject, and the mountain of evidence amassed by psychical research.